Bye Bye X-Fi

[Homey D. Clown]

OK, I used to have an X-Fi extreme gamer but I finally had it with all the issues and the lack of support from creative! So I ditched it and switched to running on-board sound which actually didn't sound too bad but it was using more of my processor then I liked so I desided since i'm on a tight budget and I work for best buy I would pick up a dynex soundcard, Now my cpu usage has gone way down and I have 5.1 sound back! my only issue is I still get a little popping when I scroll through web pages but it isn't too bad! unlike my x-fi which would pop screech and die! so anyone looking for a basic inexpensive soundcard the dynex ones aren't too bad and you can find updated drivers here! http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=37&CatID=2930&SubCatID=107 And in case anyone is wondering specs. are in sig!

 

[djoye]

You have some other issue if scrolling web pages is causing noise in your sound, heh. I do know what you're talking about because I've had the problem in the past on a Pentium 233MHz system. The video card sucked or something and couldn't handle web pages.

 

[King of Heroes]

You seem pretty satisfied with what you have now, by I'll throw out a suggestion anyway.

HT Omega Striker

It has the same specs in terms of sample rate as the XtremeGamer, but has more optical outputs (TOSlink + coax), sounds better with music (according to numerous reviews), and is cheaper. It also supports EAX 2.0 so you won't completely lose that and it has a real-time DDL+DTS encoder.

I can't say what the situation with driver support is, but from everything I've read it seems pretty solid.

EDIT:

Actually, from what I can see this card appears to lack Vista drivers. It'd be best to make absolutely sure of that before taking my suggestion seriously.

 

[SJetski71]

You have some other issue if scrolling web pages is causing noise in your sound, heh. I do know what you're talking about because I've had the problem in the past on a Pentium 233MHz system. The video card sucked or something and couldn't handle web pages.

In case you're curious, that skinny digital cable we used to connect our old cd-rom's to our soundcards was prone to interference, it would cause snap/crackle pop noises when using the mouse's scroll wheel. That cable hasn't been needed since windows 98 thankfully enough.

 

[bbf]

unlike my x-fi which would pop screech and die! so anyone looking for a basic inexpensive soundcard the dynex ones aren't too bad and you can find updated drivers here!

Just for others' information, I've had absolutely none of these issues with my X-Fi Xtreme Music or the X-Fi Fatal1ty and my Vista x64 setup and analog outs since I put it together in Oct 2007. Albeit, the Xtreme Gamer is slightly different in design than the other two, but I suspect that either the sound card was defective, or one of the components in your system was putting out an inordinate amount of RF noise.

I've heard alot about the crappy driver support Creative had for x64 Vista until the middle of this year, but no consistent problems with "mouse movement" noise.

It's nice that you've solved your problem though. I don't think that Creative makes the *best* cards out there, but they're quite acceptable now (after they updated the drivers) and definitely should not be as noisy as you described if the card is not defective.